Martin Dugard: Farther than any man: The rise and fall of Captain James Cook

By HUGH LARACY

Do not be misled by the sub-title of this book. Cook's story is not one of rise and fall but of rise - and rise. True, he was slain and baked in Hawaii in 1779, and thereby missed out on the reward of honours, privileges and prosperity to which his exploits entitled him. It would have made the ultimate success story: "from labourer's son to (possibly) Lord of the Admiralty". Still, his fame has never dimmed.

In some quarters Cook has been revered as a demi-god. In others he has been reviled as the emblem of Europe's expansion into a make-believe Pacific paradise.

Neither assessment is valid. Cook was merely a practical genius.

He is arguably the greatest of all explorers, and is certainly so of the Pacific, as attested by his outstanding achievements in navigation, charting and personnel management during three monumental and richly documented voyages.

A vast scholarly literature acknowledges his pre-eminence. So, too, does the existence of an enormous and constantly growing body of writing that even while having nothing new to contribute except errors serves to promote public awareness of Cook. He has become the common property of hacks responding to an apparently insatiable popular appetite for "Cook books".

The one under review is a case in point. Dugard is described in the blurb as an "adventure writer" and his telling of the familiar tale is, predictably, fast-paced and imaginatively enhanced. It is marked by snappy sentences, dramatic juxtapositions, invented dialogue, some carelessness with facts, novelistic speculations, concern with personalities, an interest in the morals of the Earl of Sandwich and an uncluttered narrative thrust.

Cook did not visit Tuvalu; he did not write "I want to go as far as I think it possible for a man to go", but reported having done so only after venturing to the Antarctic; "cannibal" does not derive from a West Indian tribe named Canibal.

But, since the essentials of Cook's character and travels are at least chronicled here in easily accessible prose, should such details matter any more? In the age of post-modernism when "I think" seems to be equated with "it was" or "it is", and when "spiritual and cultural" claims may even be taken as seriously as scientifically verifiable evidence, is the notion of objective truth still relevant? Maybe not in some circles, but no serious enquirer will reject it.

Disregard of critical standards cannot be accepted as a substitute for disproof, or as an alternative to evidence.

Readers attracted to the subject of Pacific exploration by Farther Than Any Man should, therefore, still consult Beaglehole's works - or even enrol for a course on it at the University of Auckland.

* Hugh Laracy is an associate professor of Pacific history at the University of Auckland.

Allen and Unwin

$27.95